Margot Robbie cast as Sharon Tate in Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’

It’s been rumored for months, but now, via Indiewire, we’ve got confirmation from the actress herself: Margot Robbie will be playing Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino’s next film, the 1969-set ensemble film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Robbie joins Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Kurt Russell (!) and Burt Reynolds (!!!!) in this tale about a TV star (DiCaprio) and his stunt double (Pitt) who live next to Tate while trying to break in to the movie business. This truly is the weirdest of all possible timelines, especially with his Star Trek movie also potentially on the horizon.

In the article, Robbie calls Tarantino a “bucket-list director” and that “[b]eyond anything, I’ve just always wanted to see him work. And I want to see how he runs a set, and how he directs people, and what the vibe is onset, and what’s in the script, and then what happens on the day. I’m just fascinated by all of it, fascinated. So it’s going to be a crazy experience to witness it firsthand. It’s something I’ve always dreamed of doing.”

The good folks over at Birth Movies Death have some additional speculation about why it took so long for Robbie to commit to the role, including some discussion of how the New York Times article about Tarantino’s behavior on the set of Kill Bill Vol. 2 might have affected things, but they also have a fascinating detail that may quiet some of the more skeptical among us: Apparently the real-life figures involved in the film’s plot may not have as much screen time as some might have feared.

Still, it’s always excellent to see Robbie in weird and challenging work (which she has been doing her entire career, pretty much), and we’re extremely pumped for whatever craziness that QT has in store for us.